Bonds of a Pack
by seastar529
Summary: What if the dragons still lived? What if instincts were a part of the dragons and dragonslayers? What if Natsu didn't go to Fairy Tail but Gajeel did? What's going to happen? Especially when war comes a knocking on Fairy Tail's door and Gajeel brings his pack to answer the call? The dragonslayer pack is going to find out just how far Fairy Tail and by extension Gajeel will go.
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I do not own Fairy Tail or any of its characters

In this AU:

~The dragons are alive, and still living with the dragon slayers.

~They live in a Pocket Dimension all together

~Cities of caves, lakes, forests, volcanoes, etc (every dragon lives with their element)

~Dragons (and dragonslayers) have pack instinct and can sense their (or their packmate's) soulmates.

~Igneel is Alpha, Metalicana is Beta

~Natsu is Alpha of the dragonslayers, Gajeel is Beta of the Dragonslayers

~Top dragons (council) have transformation magic (turn into humans for a bit)

~There are more dragons than there are in cannon

~Few backstories have been changed around to make sense

~Gajeel is still in Fairy Tail (will be explained) however Natsu is not

~Kagura and Yukino are in Fairy Tail instead of Mermaid Heel and Sabertooth

~Soulmates: Natsu/Lucy, Gajeel/Levy, Laxus/Mirajane, Cobra/Kinana, Sting/Yukino, Rogue/Kagura, Wendy/Romeo (but they're young so they're just best friends)

THAT'S ALL FOR NOW FOLKS

##############

"Where is that lousy loudmouth son of mine!" Metalicana roared, making a bunch of the lower-classed dragons scatter as he charged through them. Lessons had been interrupted because a certain beta-to-be hadn't shown up like he was supposed to and now his father was on a rampage.

"Metalhead!" Natsu screamed from the tops of one of the trees. The only one more upset by being blown off than the father, was the alpha-to-be.

"Ugh." Metalicana whipped his head around to see his rebellious son coming out of the trees leading to the human world. He was wearing some bandages over his left shoulder, as he has been for a few years (since the start of his trips to the human world) "Shut up ye old geezer, I'm here."

"You're late!" The metal dragon growled, "Where were you?"

"Somewhere."

"Doing what?" The father snapped.

"Something."

"Who were you with?" The father almost exploded.

"Someone."

The dragon slapped the teenager with his tail in annoyance, "I was warned human teens were like this. Temperamental little numbskulls." The dragon huffed a little, "You're grounded, go to your cave and think about what you've done."

"And you call me temperamental." Gajeel rolled his eyes as he rubbed the sore spot the dragon tail hit. "Geez, you know you're a really abusive dragon." The tail came down again, slamming him in the gut, making the metal dragonslayer groan. "Oi that was uncalled for."

"You junkard." Natsu screeched as he practically flew in and punched his beta in the face. "What the hell were you doing? We were supposed to be learning about Soul Mates today!" Now, Natsu was not the most studious of students but he loved learning about the bond between mates. So much so that whenever the dragons scheduled a lesson on it he was the first one to the class, even beating out the teachers. Igneel always said that when it came to the kids Natsu would be the most attentive mate.

Gajeel rolled his eyes, "Whatever pinkie."

Metalicana's eyes narrowed, that was it? His son never blew off a fight like that. The two of them could argue for hours and then fist fight for a few more just so they could blow off some steam. The fact that Gajeel did nothing more than fire a half-hearted insult was something to be worried about. The metal dragon watched as his son kept twitching; at first it wasn't noticeable but now the slayer was always glancing backward. "Gajeel?"

"Hm?" His son looked over at him before taking another look backward.

"Is something wrong?" The metal dragon asked.

"He must be scared." The dragon slayer muttered.

"Huh?" Natsu and Metalicana were confused at that statement.

"Iron dragon's roar." Gajeel chanted as he turned around, doing the motion and directing his attack at a singular bush settled behind them. A man, short and skinny to the point of giving 'skin and bones' a new meaning, rolled out from behind the plant coughing. "So you're the one who followed me huh?"

"How long have you known?" The man asked in a raspy voice.

"The whole time." Gajeel smirked, "I'm a dragonslayer, my senses are much better than regular humans."

"Then why did you lead me to your home?" The man asked. His floppy, ugly orange hair sloped into his face in a greasy mess.

Gajeel stepped back, motioning for Natsu to come over to him.

"Why did you bring him here?" The pinkette asked angrily.

"Now don't shoot the messenger." He started, "But that guy attacked your mate."

"Excuse me?" the fire dragonslayer's eyes narrowed.

"He-" Gajeel pointed to the greased up guy, "attacked your mate."

The iron dragonslayer watched his packmate as the words clicked. The pink-haired boy turned slowly to the other man, who did not understand the danger that he was in. "My mate?" Natsu repeated. Suddenly fire erupted from his hands and he was leaping at the man with a terrifying cry of rage. Natsu slammed the man into the ground so hard that it left a gigantic crater under them.

"I'll go gather the council." Metalicana grumbled, "Make sure Natsu doesn't kill the man, we need to gather information."

"Sure." Gajeel agreed nonchalantly, watching the spectacle with amusement.

#######

"How could you not tell me you knew my mate!" Natsu screamed from across the council room; he had to be held back by Sting, Rogue, and Wendy so he wouldn't attack his beta. "How long have you known her? Where is she?"

The council involved the alpha Igneel and Natsu, the beta Metalicana and Gajeel, Skydrium and his son Rogue, Weisslogia and his son Sting, Grandine and her daughter Wendy, the lightning dragon Rai, the poison dragon Bane, and the celestial dragon Draco.

"Calm down son." Igneel said from the top platform of the cave, where the alpha always sat. "Maybe he just ran into her when this man was attacking her."

Gajeel shook his head, "I've known her for a few months now." Next to him he heard his father give a disappointed sigh, "I was doing you a favor though, by not telling you about her."

Natsu snarled, "How?"

"Honestly, she's way out of your league. She's smart, pretty, and kind. The only thing you've got going for you is the fact that your hair is her favorite color." Gajeel chuckled a little. "Or at least one of them, technically Wendy has the same thing going for her and she's a little kid."

"Enough Gajeel." Metalicana groaned like his son was giving him a headache… or an ulcer.

"The problem." Igneel said from where he was, "Is not the fact that you kept a mate hidden from the pack, though that disappoints me more than I can say, but the fact that you led the man who attacked that mate to us with no warning despite the fact that unknown humans are forbidden from entering this place."

"Sorry." The iron dragonslayer said, not sounding apologetic at all, "I just thought your son would want to take a crack at the punk who hurt blondie."

"How did you meet my mate?" Natsu questioned. He had finally stopped struggling in the grips of his packmates.

"None of your business." Gajeel answered.

"Where did you meet her?" Natsu tried again.

"None of your business." Gajeel answered again.

"When were you going to tell me about her?" Natsu sounded very annoyed when he asked this question.

"Don't know." Gajeel shrugged, "Didn't really think about it, but Blondie was hurt, the guild is preparing for war, and I thought you might want to join in on the fun." A mischievous grin stretched on Gajeel's face, "More explosions for us."

"Guild?" Igneel asked.

"Let's just say that's part of how Blondie and I met. Guilds in the human realm are basically a group of people with magic who ban together and take jobs. There are a lot of them, and Blondie and I are in the same guild Fairy Tail." Gajeel started unwrapping the bandages from his left shoulder, "When you become part of an official guild you get a guild mark somewhere on your body to symbolize it." Finally the council could see a black mark on Gajeel's shoulder that must be some kind of fairy. "We have a guild hall in Magnolia, which coincidentally is in the town next to the dimensional rip, and from there we all get requests for jobs and take them for money." Gajeel seemed to wrestle with himself before adding, "They're kind of like another pack."

Almost immediately outraged protests sounded out in the council room, "You cannot be serious." Rai screeched from his seat, his bright yellow zig-zag scales practically standing on end at the blasphemous statement issued by the youngster. "There is no such thing as having two packs, what are you thinking boy?"

"Calm down Rai." Grandine sighed, from her perch to his left. "He didn't say it was another pack, he said it was LIKE one." She clicked her tongue, "Still he should be more careful with his word choices."

"I still don't like it." Bane said, her voice sounding melodious even though she was obviously angry. Her royal purple scales glistened while dark purple poison oozed between them. The poison she exuded naturally was less lethal than the ones she could conjure up with barely a thought. The only way it could really harm you was if you drank large quantities of it. The rest of the time it was just there.

"Neither do I." Igneel said, "But not for the same reasons. I don't know these people and my son's mate is in this group." He thought for a second. "Are any other mates within this group."

"Its a guild." Gajeel groaned, "Sting's, Rogue's, Wendy's, and mine."

Grumbling was heard from the dragonslayer's mentioned and their parents.

"I want to go to the guild." Everything stopped as the dragons and Gajeel turned to Natsu who had spoken out. "My mate was close by to me and I didn't even know, and then she was attacked. I don't care if you guys don't agree with my decision I'm going anyway."

"Me too." Sting chimed in, "My mate's out there and preparing for war. I have to go." Rogue nodded his agreement with the sentiments his best friend and partner used.

Wendy stepped forward, "You guys will need a healer." she smiled, "I'm coming with you. I have to make sure my mate doesn't die before we're of age to be more than friends."

"Alright." the alpha nodded. When the other dragons in the council room started to protest he held up his claw, "I allow you to go and help in the war but I want updates and checkins. You will come home tomorrow evening for a check in. Bring information back on the guild members you are helping and the enemy who is attacking."

"Yes alpha." Natsu, Sting, Rogue, and Wendy said in unison. Gajeel inclined his head respectfully.

"Let's go losers, we're going to a war meeting," Gajeel shouted, and he seemed a little more excited than he should be.

##########

"So this is your guild hall." the new dragonslayers stared up at the tall building.

"Yup." Gajeel answered, walking to the front door, "Come on. The others won't be too happy that I left and brought back strangers."

"What?" Sting grinned, "Still scared of Stranger Danger?"

The iron dragon slayer snickered, "This guild isn't scared of anything. Just warning you now." He paused before continuing, "Watch out for the woman with scarlet hair, she's a monster. She'll destroy you all with a few waves of a sword." With that the beta opened up the doors with a flourish. "Welcome to Fairy Tail, it's a one way trip to Hell from here."

The group walked into the building, now not knowing what to expect. Looking around they saw many tables filled up with gloomy men and women alike talking to each other in hushed voices. All of them had the same strange mark as Gajeel in different places; some had the mark on their faces, some on their necks, one girl had on what was basically a bra for a top and had a black mark on her stomach. That same woman was mournfully drinking liquor from a huge keg. One woman, who was called Mirajane by the people at the tables, was serving drinks to the gloomy people with a forced smile on her face, dodging one way to the next in her red dress, she looked like an angel in the midst of a crisis.

"Gajeel you're back!" the woman with the giant Keg yelled as she noticed the group at the door. "Where have you been?"

"Getting reinforcements." Gajeel called back, "How's blondie Cana?"

The woman, who the other dragonslayers guessed was named Cana, shrugged with a sigh, "Hasn't come back from Porlyusica yet." She put the drink down, "She had a lot of wounds on her when the battle finished. If you hadn't gotten there when you did she might have been in a worse condition."

"The people who attacked my children won't get away with it." Everyone in the guild hall turned their heads to the short old man on the second floor of the guild. He jumped down the stairs two at a time, but even though the sight was slightly silly with his weird colorful hat flopping everywhere, the room was still tensed at his words.

"Master," Mirajane chirped, "Gajeel brought some people to help us in our fight."

"I see." the man walked forward past the tables of people to where the group of dragonslayers stood, "You've come to help my children in their hour of need?"

"Um...yes?" Sting said.

The angry look the old man had on faded into a wide smile, "Thank you for coming, we'll need all the help we can get." He spread his arms wide open, "The people of this guild are one family, and as the master of the guild I am the father of that family. If you want to help us against our enemies come in and prepare yourself. But if you have even the slightest notion that you can come in and destroy us when we're down…" his demeanor went to angry again as he glared, "We'll destroy you along with the others who declared war on us."

All around the room cheers erupted as the old man went to the front of the room and hopped onto the bar.

"Everyone!" the man yelled. "Erza and Gray have gotten back from their mission and are on their way here. Kagura, Yukino, and Levy are bringing Lucy back from the infirmary as we speak and the Thunder God Tribe and Cobra have emerged from their training in the woods. The only one we're missing is Gildarts who I am still trying to get in touch with." The master smirked, "It's time to plan a war."

"War is a MAN!" a white haired, burly man screamed from one of the tables.

"Elfman." Mirajane with the white hair giggled, "War doesn't have a gender."

Elfman sat down.

"And we have reinforcements." Gajeel said, pointing at his packmates, "They're also dragonslayers."

Everyone in the guild hall (Master included) turned with an incredulous look, "More Dragonslayers?"

"Yup." Gajeel nodded in confirmation.

"That means we have seven of them helping us out." Someone in the room said. Natsu, Sting, Rogue, and Wendy frowned in confusion and looked at each other. Seven? Who were the other two?

The doors opened with the sound like an explosion, and through them came a tall woman with scarlet hair, who the dragon slayers decided must be the monster Gajeel was talking about, and a black haired male with only boxers and a necklace on. His right pectoral boasted the mark of the guild.

"Where's Lucy?" the woman asked loudly.

"Not here yet." Gajeel answered, "She's coming from the infirmary now."

"What happened?" the male asked.

"Gray clothes." Cana said from where she was.

Gray looked down and freaked out, "Where the hell did they go?"

"Ah Juvia is so happy to see Gray-sama!" a girl with blue hair and clothes screamed latching onto the poor male. "Marry Juvia, Gray-sama!"

"Well at least Juvia is the same." Gajeel sighed, "The day she is too upset to fangirl over Gray is the day we're all dead in a ditch somewhere."

"Get off!" the poor boy yelled, trying to get out of her grasp and failing. "Help me!" he hissed to the dragonslayers. "She's crushing my freedom."

"Stop being so dramatic Stripper." Natsu scoffed.

Juvia immediately got off of Gray as he marched over to Natsu, "Don't call me a stripper pinkie."

Natsu's hands erupted into flames as he went to punch the man out, Gray's hands, one in a fist and one flat under it, were starting to freeze the air around them.

The door opened again and the scent made Natsu, Sting, and Rogue turn; the scents of their mates overwhelming them for the first time. They stared as a blonde, busty woman who was covered in bandages and had her left hand in a sling was led through them by a brunette wearing white with a sword at her hip and a white haired girl also wearing white, and who had a blue flower in her hair. Finally after them they recognized Gajeel's mate, a blue haired petite woman with an orange headband. She waved at Gajeel as she walked by but didn't stop as she followed the others to the front of the room.

Gray stepped away from Natsu when he realized the pinkette was pre-occupied.

Gajeel took his spot and slyly whispered, "Close your mouth, boy. Your open mouth fly trap isn't very attractive."

Natsu blushed and closed his mouth but he still stared at the blonde who came in guided by her friends. "Is that her?"

"Yup." Gajeel crossed his arms, "That's your mate, Lucy of Fairy Tail." He elbowed the alpha, "Told you she was pretty."

Natsu nodded, "Yeah you did."

"I told you she was way out of your league too." Gajeel reminded him.

Natsu nodded absentmindedly, "Yeah, you did." He started walking forward until Gajeel caught him by the arm, "What are you doing?"

"What are you doing?" the iron dragon slayer asked quietly so that the rest of the guild didn't hear. "She's a human, she doesn't feel the connection to a soul mate like we do. You're going to have to play this slow, got it?"

Natsu nodded, "Yeah got it."

"Good." Gajeel said releasing the pinkette, "Cause its time for a war meeting."

######

 _ **And that is the end of the chapter. Thanks to anyone who read this, please review and tell me what you think. More reviews mean more of a chance that I get back to this story quickly. So please do…..**_

 _ **Read and Review.**_


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: I do not own Fairy Tail

no flames please.

REMEMBER:

~The dragons are alive, and still living with the dragon slayers.

~They live in a Pocket Dimension all together

~Cities of caves, lakes, forests, volcanoes, etc (every dragon lives with their element)

~Dragons (and dragonslayers) have pack instinct and can sense their (or their packmate's) soulmates.

~Igneel is Alpha, Metalicana is Beta

~Natsu is Alpha of the dragonslayers, Gajeel is Beta of the Dragonslayers

~Top dragons (council) have transformation magic (turn into humans for a bit)

~There are more dragons than there are in cannon

~Few backstories have been changed around to make sense

~Gajeel is still in Fairy Tail (will be explained) however Natsu is not

~Kagura and Yukino are in Fairy Tail instead of Mermaid Heel and Sabertooth

~Soulmates: Natsu/Lucy, Gajeel/Levy, Laxus/Mirajane, Cobra/Kinana, Sting/Yukino, Rogue/Kagura, Wendy/Romeo (but they're young so they're just best friends)

~(NEW ADDITION) AND: Sting and Rogue are Natsu and Gajeel's age instead of Wendy's… it just wouldn't make sense in this universe.

* * *

The scarlet haired woman walked over to Lucy, who smiled at her immediately. Lucy said to her, "Welcome home Erza, sorry about all of this. I tried to make them see reason, but they've all decided to go on the warpath."

Erza smiled reassuringly, "I know Lucy." She turned to the rest of the people, "Shame on you for just starting a war meeting like this." The rest of the people in the room lowered their heads at the scolding tone. "Not everyone is here yet, the Thunder God Tribe, Gray, and I all want to be a part of making the plan of attack." She raised her fist, "We'll destroy the foolish people who thought it wise to make a move against someone in Fairy Tail. When we're through they'll rue the day that they came up with such a foolish plan as to challenge the might of the strongest guild in Fiore."

The entire hall cheered so loudly that it reminded Natsu of Igneel's roar. It was full of power and made him think that this guild was a force to be reckoned with. He looked around the room, since the woman Erza walked in the rest of the room had seemed to lighten up almost like this woman was one of the people running the show.

Lucy, who had been seated at the front table next to where Erza was standing proudly, held her face in her hands; like she didn't want any of this. Natsu frowned, why didn't his mate want to get back at the people who harmed her? He himself wanted to go back to the Dragon World and give the man who did this to her another thrashing; preferably a lot harder and without the guy passing out this time.

"How do we find out what they want with Lucy?" Mirajane asked, "I mean it could be anything. Her magic, her parents, something we've never heard of that she fits the description of miraculously. It could be anything."

Gray (who hadn't found his clothes yet) sighed, "Well her magic is considered a great power source especially since she has ten out of twelve Zodiacs. I say we assume they're after the keys until we have another clue as to what's going on." He turns to the white haired girl with the blue flower who was Sting's mate, "Yukino you should be careful too. Since they attacked Lucy and we're probably assuming that they're after the keys you should watch out." Behind him, Natsu could feel Sting shift at the implication.

"We can't just assume that they're after the keys Gray." the master said, "Of course it is a good guess considering recent history; it's not the only thing people want Lucy for."

"Honestly," everyone turned to the door where five people stood. The dragonslayers frowned at the smell of two unfamiliar dragonslayers, the blonde guy with the lightening bolt scar and the red brownish haired guy with pointed ears and a scar down one of his eyes. Then behind them was a girl in glasses and a green dress, a guy with green hair in a red overcoat carrying a sword, and a guy wearing a knight mask and armor. The blond spoke again, "They could've just been trying to rile us up; everyone in Fiore knows that we go psycho when Lucy is threatened. She's become the weakness of our guild."

Lucy looked down in shame, "I'm-"

"Shut up Blondie," the pointed-eared guy sighed, "That's not what he meant. I can hear what you're thinking right now and I don't like it."

"Laxus," the master addressed the blond male, "You could've phrased that a little better."

Laxus didn't say anything to that. Just walked over to the counter, taking his seat to the right of the master that just scolded him.

The other dragonslayer casually walked over to the purple haired waitress behind the counter.

"Gajeel." Laxus called over, "Do you know where the guy who attacked Lucy went off to?"

"Yeah," Gajeel stood up, "The one that wasn't beaten by Blondie followed me to where I live with my family and tried to attack me." He smirked, "What he didn't realize was-"

"You knew the whole time." Lucy interrupted amused, "Good job Rusty." You could hear Gajeel grumble at the nickname because 'he was never rusty' but Lucy continued, "I don't see why we're doing this; unless they're all numbskulls they'll lie low for a while. What's the point of making a war plan if the war isn't going to happen?"

"Oh it's happening." Natsu said from his seat causing Lucy to turn. The moment their eyes met things got heated and not in a good way. Everyone disappeared just like it was supposed to when mates locked eyes, but instead of sweet nothings and loving glances the two mates were shouting at each other and glaring.

"Who are you?" Lucy asked, not trying to be mean but with the frustration in her voice it sounded like it, "And why are you trying to start something? These guys are already bad enough as it is! This is completely unnecessary!"

"Unnecessary?" Natsu asked standing up, "Look at you!" He gestured to all of her wounds, "You look like you were run over by a freight train!"

Lucy stood up too, "Thanks a lot for that," she rolled her eyes, "That's all I want in the world, to be called ugly by a stranger with pink hair." She laughed a little, "What on earth made you think dying it that color would be a good idea? Were you drunk or did you lose a bet with Bucket' O Bolts?"

The two of them seemed to gravitate towards one another. Like moths to a flame they moved closer inch by inch until they were almost touching. Blood was pounding in Natsu's ears as Lucy's scent burned in his nostrils. So close… so very far.

"Something wrong with my hair?" Natsu raised an eyebrow. "It's better than being a blonde." The two of them didn't hear, but Sting yelled from the background at his little comeback. "And as for stranger…."

Suddenly Lucy was falling, and so was the dragonslayer as he tried to catch her. One second they were upright and the next they had smacked heads and were on the ground groaning.

"Natsu Dragneel, son of Igneel." Natsu said holding his head in his hand. "You have a hard head you big weirdo."

"I have a hard head? And who are you calling a weirdo, you barely know me at all." Lucy replied rubbing the spot their skulls had connected at. "Lucy of Fairy Tail."

"Well weirdo, now we know each other."

A piercing screech shot through the eardrums of the pair of mates and everyone else in the room that the two finally remembered about. Mirajane was sitting there hugging the tray she used to carry drinks to the patron and she had a face of eternal bliss on. Lucy blushed brightly before choking out a half-yell of, "Mira!"

Natsu was about to say another thing to his blushing mate when Gajeel came up to him and started dragging him back to the table with Sting, Rogue, and Wendy. Each of them were waiting there ready to hold him down if he tried to do something. "Come on didn't you see that, we were hitting it off." He whispered to his beta annoyed.

"Yeah, great." his beta said back, "You guys are now friends. Congratulations; I'm so excited for you." Gajeel rolled his eyes, "Look I told you that humans don't feel the soulmate bond like we do. Don't mess this up by rushing into things without a plan. Get close to her, be her friend and confidant, and don't rely on that mating bond to tie you two together."

Natsu frowned but didn't fight back, he knew that Gajeel was probably right (not that he would ever admit this). "Alright."

A noise from Wendy made the dragonslayers, even Laxus and Cobra across the room, turn a bit. She was holding her head in the usual way she did when her mother and her were communicating telepathically. She seemed to be nodding to whatever was being said across the connection, and it wasn't a happy expression she was wearing.

"Ex-excuse me?" Wendy said.

"Yes child?" Makarov replied.

"The man escaped." Wendy relayed the message. "The dragons don't know how."

Everyone started yelling at that. The pack of dragonslayers looked at each other, 'how did some weakling get past a bunch of angry dragons?'

"That makes things more difficult." Makarov sighed, "Alright then, we'll start looking into the guild marks we got off some of the other attackers. Reedus-" he looked over at a man with curly hair and a large gut, "Have you made the copies I asked for." Reedus nodded and gave him a handful of papers. "I'll send these to our friends at Lamia Scale, Blue Pegasus, Mermaid Heel, Quatro Cerberus, and Crime Sorciere. I'll also ask some of my old council friends for help identifying these crooks."

The room's occupants started murmuring.

"Council?" Rogue asked Gajeel quietly.

"The Magic Council is the ruling body of the magical world." Gajeel explained, "Unfortunately, they aren't too fond of Fairy Tail after a few minor incidents, but Gramps has some good friends in the Council or formerly so."

Sting frowned, "What did you guys do to make them 'not too fond' of you?"

"What didn't we do?"

It was Laxus who spoke. The lightning-scarred dragonslayer had walked up to them in the commotion, making the group (excluding Gajeel) almost growl, and was now standing in front of them with his arms crossed. He rolled his eyes at them, and motioned for them to follow him. Out of the corner of his eye Natsu saw the other dragon slayer moving along the edge of the room as well. The pinkette nodded and with that his packmates stood up.

Outside the quiet calm broke as soon as the group had maneuvered to the back of the building away from traffic and people.

"You're dragon slayers too." Laxus stated.

Natsu nodded, "I'm Natsu," He pointed to each of his pack as he introduced them, "Then there's Wendy, Sting, Rogue, and of course you know Gajeel."

"I'm Laxus, and this is Cobra."

"We didn't know there was another pack of dragons and slayers." Natsu said and was about to ask questions when the scarred slayer raised his hand.

"No, we are not part of your weird dragon-instinct business." he said. "We're second generation dragon-slayers, we don't belong to any 'pack'."

"Second generation?" Sting asked, "I've never heard of something like that. Were your parents dragonslayers then?"

"No." Gajeel sighed, "It means that they received their slayer powers from a lacrima implanted somewhere in their body. Their powers are stronger than a regular dragonslayer, termed first generation, but because they have no formal training it's more uncontrollable." The iron dragonslayer put his hand on Laxus' shoulder. "They also have the dragon instincts and urges as first generation but are too stubborn to 'cave' to them." It was starting to sound like they had had that conversation before.

"That's impossible." Rogue said simply, "They have to do what their instincts say, or they'll go insane." The biggest instinct was to be a part of the pack, Fairy Tail seemed to be working with them for now, but would it stay like that? Highly unlikely.

"You're really underestimating us." Laxus growled. Natsu growled in response, no one disrespected his pack.

"Watch it." he warned. "Or I won't hold back."

Laxus laughed, "This is Fairy Tail, we don't even hold back on guild members. I'd crush you in a fight." Lightning cracked around the blond menacingly making Natsu smirk. This would be fun.

"If you're so confidant," Natsu cracked his knuckles, "then let's do this. I win you join my pack."

Laxus shrugged, "Sure kid, and if I win; all of you have to leave me alone about this instinct business."

"Fighting will have to wait." Cobra muttered, "Erza's coming and if she finds out you're fighting the allies Gajeel brought, she'll will you and then she'll kill me for not stopping you."

Laxus sighed, "Guess a rain check is in order Pinkie."

"Why are you all picking on my hair?" Natsu whined.

"Laxus, Cobra, I hope you aren't making our allies uncomfortable." Erza said coming around the corner. The dragonslayers who were new to Fairy Tail were shocked at the aura she exerted, it was a terrifying aura that weighed down on them like a monster.

"No Erza." The two men muttered stepping back so that the redhead could go to the group.

"On behalf of the Fairy Tail Guild, I would like to thank you for coming." Erza said, "Lucy is one of my teammates, and here I was on a job when she was attacked." Unnoticeable to anyone but Natsu Erza's fist shook a little (though be it from anger or something else Natsu did not know) and she hid it behind her back.

"Your master already thanked us." Natsu said rubbing the back of your head, "And threatened us."

Erza seemed to sigh at that, "I see."

"Yeah." Sting chuckled, "Gajeel you should have told the pack about this place sooner! Its hilarious."

Gajeel looked at him like he was insane, "You think this was funny?"

Sting raised an eyebrow, "Should I not have?"

"If you thought this was funny then you're going to find us hilarious when we're back to normal." Gajeel snorted. Laxus and Cobra seemed to grin at this and Erza smirked a little at the implication.

* * *

 _ **Thank you for reading this chapter. Sorry that it took so long to update, I will try to write quicker next time.**_


	3. Chapter 3

Disclaimer: I do not own Fairy Tail

REMEMBER:

~The dragons are alive, and still living with the dragon slayers.

~They live in a Pocket Dimension all together

~Cities of caves, lakes, forests, volcanoes, etc (every dragon lives with their element)

~Dragons (and dragonslayers) have pack instinct and can sense their (or their packmate's) soulmates.

~Igneel is Alpha, Metalicana is Beta

~Natsu is Alpha of the dragonslayers, Gajeel is Beta of the Dragonslayers

~Top dragons (council) have transformation magic (turn into humans for a bit)

~There are more dragons than there are in cannon

~Few backstories have been changed around to make sense

~Gajeel is still in Fairy Tail (will be explained) however Natsu is not

~Kagura and Yukino are in Fairy Tail instead of Mermaid Heel and Sabertooth

~Soulmates: Natsu/Lucy, Gajeel/Levy, Laxus/Mirajane, Cobra/Kinana, Sting/Yukino, Rogue/Kagura, Wendy/Romeo (but they're young so they're just best friends)

~ Sting and Rogue are Natsu and Gajeel's age instead of Wendy's… it just wouldn't make sense in this universe.

* * *

Gajeel must have decided that it would be funny to ditch his alpha dragonslayer in the middle of unfamiliar territory with no knowledge of how to act or any money whatsoever. Because that was exactly what seemed to happen. One moment Natsu and his pack were walking around the city and the next Gajeel and the others were nowhere in sight and for some reason Natsu couldn't smell them.

"I'm so hungry!" Natsu grumbled. Thankfully he knew enough about the human world to not wander into a restaurant without money. What did the humans here ever use for money? Natsu sighed, just another thing he would have to ask later. Thanks Gajeel.

Natsu sniffed to see if he could smell his pack. Nope. But he did smell the most wonderful scent that he knew, no not food, his mate. That immediately made him perk up; looking around he spotted the blonde walking just a bit behind him, looking around like she was trying to hide from someone.

"Hey Lucy!" Natsu yelled. She looked up startled and started running at him. He flinched, "What are you-"

"Shhh." Lucy said putting a hand to his mouth. "Be quiet."

Natsu thought, 'I know a way you can shut me up.'

Lucy looked around and sighed, "I think I lost them." Natsu pointed to her hand which was still on his mouth, "Sorry." She took it off.

"Who do you think you lost?" Natsu asked. He looked around tensely trying to spot any person that might try and hurt his mate. There didn't seem to be a problem, but maybe they were just good at hiding?

"Mirajane and Erza!" Lucy shivered. "They are all over me."

Natsu was about to ask about that but out of the corner of his eye he could see the two searching around in the crowd.

"Well come on then." Natsu whispered hurriedly. "They see us." He saw the exact moment they recognized him and Lucy.

The two of them ran through the crowd, Natsu dragging Lucy by the hand. "What are you doing?" She yelled.

"Be quiet." Natsu said. "You wanted to get away from them right?" He turned to her. Her eyes widened a little, "Then I'll get you anywhere you want to go."

She smiled so brightly it reminded Natsu of the sun, "Let's go."

* * *

They ran a few blocks, through large crowds, before they stopped. When they did Lucy huffed and puffed, and laughed a lot. "That was so much fun." She said breathlessly. Her blonde hair had gotten a little out of place during the sprint so she smoothed it over.

"Yeah." Natsu chuckled, not as winded as his mate. "Ever do something like that before?"

"Run away from my overprotective guild members who happen to scare me more than you can imagine?" Lucy shook her head, "No I can't say that I have." She laughed again, "Seriously, that was so great. You sure you aren't a Fairy Tail wizard? Because you seem to remind me of one an awful lot."

Natsu shook his head, "Not a Fairy Tail wizard, though you guys seem to know how to party from what I've been hearing." He smirked, "If you ever wanted to do that again, I'd do it. Anytime."

"Anywhere?" the blonde asked. Natsu's heart sped up a little at the totally innocent question. He would take her anywhere she wanted to go.

He almost blushed when his stomach growled. It was very audible. Lucy giggled a little, "Hungry?"

He scratched the back of his head a little and laughed, "Yeah. Kind of."

"I'm willing to bet you don't have a lot of money on you." Lucy guessed.

He shrugged, "Not a bit." He had been to this world for less than a day and his beta was awfully interested in seeing him crash and burn.

Lucy nodded like she had thought of something, "How about as thank you for the assisted escape I take you out to lunch?"

"O-oh you don't have to." Natsu stuttered a little.

"Come on." She grabbed his hand. "I know this great place that's close by."

"Okay." He agreed, a little distracted by the way her hand fit in his. Like two puzzle pieces, as sappy as it was for him to think that.

* * *

"So." Lucy said leaning on her arms while they waited on their food. "What kind of dragon magic do you know."

Natsu almost sighed in relief at the topic, it was something he could talk about easily. He had been starting to get worried, he knew nothing about what to say to girls. "I was raised by Igneel who is a Fire Dragon. He taught me everything he knows."

"Fire Dragon Igneel." Lucy repeated like she was memorizing it. "That sounds really cool!"

"Yeah." He gave her a full blown smile, "My dad is the coolest dragon ever! He's strong, he's smart, he's nice, and he's the alpha of our pack too!"

"Alpha?" Lucy asked, "Like the leader?"

"Yeah. He's the leader of our pack which is really big." Natsu shrugged, "But he's also the king of the fire dragons."

"Wait so he's the alpha of one pack and the king of the Fire Dragons?" Lucy questioned, "That doesn't seem right, is that allowed?"

"Why wouldn't it be?" Natsu frowned, "Those positions aren't connected at all. No dragon just lives with his type, they spread out and find a family with others of different types, or maybe a few of the same types, and live together. The only time one type, or kingdom, really comes together are the annual meetings that they set up to conduct business. Or when disaster strikes." He took a sip of his soda, which was really good and he wondered why dragons didn't have it all the time, "When disaster does strike my father is the one to calm every fire dragon down and make the hard decisions that might be needed."

"Oh okay, I think I get it." Lucy said, "Thank you for explaining that."

"No problem." Natsu smiled, "Now what kind of magic do you use?"

Lucy took off the ring of keys from her side and put them on the table in front of her, "I'm a Celestial Spirit Wizard. And these keys are what allows me to be able to make contracts and befriend spirits that help me fight."

"Awesome!" Natsu's eyes shined a little, "Why are some gold and some silver?"

"The silver ones are normal spirits, each key is connected to one of the species that it specifies." She showed him a simple key with a blue mark on the bottom, "This is the key of the 'Small Dog, Nikora' and Nikora is the species not the dog so when I made a contract with my Nikora I nicknamed him Plue."

"Oh." Natsu was really interested, this seemed like a really cool magic.

"The golden keys are special keys. There are only one of each key, and each go to a specific spirit. There are twelve, technically thirteen, zodiac keys in the world and I have ten of them. The other three are with Yukino." Lucy explained. Natsu vaguely recognized Yukino as the name of Sting's mate. "The zodiacs are some of the strongest spirits of the Celestial Spirit World."

"Awesome! How did you meet them?" Natsu was practically jumping in his seat. When Lucy looked confused he added, "They are your friends, how did you get their keys so you could make them your friends? I bet you love those stories."

She smiled, "Yeah." she rubbed one that was gold and had a weird urn shape on the bottom, "Aquarius was my first spirit, she was my mother's before me. When my mother died she was passed down, and since I had no friends where I lived I summoned her everyday. And back then she allowed me to." The next key had a crab at the tip, "Cancer was also my mother's but I didn't receive his key right away since my mother gave him to someone else until I was ready. When I received him and made the contract the first thing he did was sit me down and do my hair since I didn't 'take care of it properly.'" She laughed a little.

Natsu laughed a little too, "He really sat you down because you didn't treat your hair right?"

"He's a hair stylist and would never want to be seen around with a wizard whose hair isn't in tip top condition." Lucy explained, fingering the next key whose tip was an axe. "My first contract with a spirit who wasn't a spirit of my mother's was Taurus whose key was hanging randomly with a farm. The farmer noticed my keys while I was helping his wife bring in the groceries and decided Taurus should be with me. When we contracted Taurus swore to protect my 'smoking hot body' as he called it." She scoffed, "Perverted cow."

Natsu's hand caught on fire when he heard that one. Thankfully it was under the table so Lucy did not see.

She talked a little about the silver keys but none of the silver keys she had really had too much of a story, she bought their keys in a store and became good friends… the end. The next key she showed Natsu was elegant, "On my first mission as a team with Gray we ran into this Celestial Spirit Wizard who was awful to people and spirits alike. When he was arrested, because automatically any contracts you have with spirits are nullified upon arrest, Virgo sought me out and asked if I wanted to contract."

"That's cool." Natsu said, "You must have really made an impression with her."

Lucy smiled and nodded. The next key had a tip that was the tip of an arrow, "Sagittarius was from my first S Class mission. Gray decided to try one of them out so he grabbed one with a golden key reward and we hopped on a boat to this island of demons who didn't know they were demons. Things happened, Erza showed up to destroy everything and at the end we couldn't take the money but since I was a Celestial Spirit Wizard Erza let me take the key."

"That was nice of her. But why weren't you allowed to take the money?" Natsu asked.

"Because officially Gray and I weren't supposed to take the mission since it was for S Class wizards. S Class wizards are stronger than normal ones and go on much more dangerous quests… like the one we were on. Even though Erza was an S Class wizard she did not take the mission and so none of us were allowed to take the reward." Lucy sighed, "I missed out on so much rent money."

Natsu grimaced, she went on some dangerous mission like that.

The next key was a lion on the bottom, "I got Leo a few weeks later. I don't know how much of the story he wants anyone to know, but he is one of my strongest spirits."

"Princess, I believe I am your strongest spirit." Natsu turned, a man with orange hair dressed in a fancy suit was standing next to their table. His smile was certainly pleasant, but his eyes were hard whenever he glanced at Natsu. "Princess, who is this?"

"This is Natsu, Natsu this is Leo the Lion, but most of the guild calls him Loke." Lucy introduced the two of them not noticing the angry storm cloud between them.

"Pleasure." Loke said in a deadpan.

"What's your story?" Natsu asked, "Since Lucy doesn't know if she can say."

Loke leaned forward a little, "She saved my life. That's one of the only two things to know about our relationship." Natsu's hand caught on fire again because of the word 'relationship', Loke noticed but Lucy did not. "The other is that I am her most loyal spirit and will stop at nothing to crush Lucy's enemies."

"Natsu's going to help with that." Lucy laughed nervously starting to feel the tension in the air, "Gajeel brought some people to help Fairy Tail wage war on whoever tried to hurt me."

"Well tell Fairy Tail that the Celestial Spirit World is preparing as well." Loke said proudly.

"Loke!" Lucy said shocked.

The orange haired male smirked, "Did you really think that the Celestial Spirits who made contracts with you would just let something like this go? Unlike the other times the people who attacked you nullified out gates and left us banging on the barrier trying to help you. We're ticked. And let's not even go into what the Celestial Spirit King is feeling at the moment, his favorite human was attacked."

"I'm not his favorite human." Lucy tried to say.

"You severely underestimate how much of an impact you made on him." the orange haired male scoffed. "The king would kill to keep you happy."

Lucy was starting to get agitated so Natsu tried to change the subject, "So I wonder when that food is going to get here."

"Mind if I join you?" Loke asked getting ready to sit down.

"I do brother." another voice rang out. Natsu turned, slightly scared, to see a pinked haired woman in a maid's outfit, "The princess is trying to enjoy a lunch date and you're ruining it."

"It's not a date!" Lucy interjected.

"See!" Loke said, "So I should be able to join."

Virgo glared, "That's rude Leo." She crossed her arms annoyed.

"Is not," Loke argued, "The more the merrier right?"

"Two's company, three's a crowd." Virgo uncrossed her arms and walked over to the other spirit. Taking him by the ear she turned to Lucy, "I am sorry princess." Then she turned to Natsu, "Prince." Lucy and Natsu (who had taken a sip of their drinks) choked a little. Virgo then looked to Loke who was obviously uncomfortable with her nails digging into his ear but holding himself back from hurting the other, "It is punishment time Leo." They disappeared in a glimmer of gold.

"I'm so sorry!" Lucy stammered out.

"It's fine." Natsu laughed awkwardly, "Those are some special personalities though."

"Yeah." Lucy chuckled.

"What other stories do you have?" Natsu asked. "You have a few more spirits right?"

"Right!" Lucy agreed. She showed him four keys; one with pincers at the tip, one with two people at the bottom and what looked like a harp for the tip, one that seemed to have ram horns on the tip, and a silver one she hadn't talked about earlier who had a round bottom and a rectangular tip. "These are the keys of Scorpio, Gemini, Aries, and Caelum. I contracted with them at the same time because I had just defeated their master Angel and she was arrested for trying with her team to start Nirvana up again."

"The lost magic Nirvana?" Natsu questioned, "Igneel told me that legend, it's real?"

"Yeah, it turned on." Lucy shivered, "Thankfully Laxus, who was supposed to be kicked out of the guild but wasn't by some miracle, was there to stop everything. He and Gajeel were awesome at destroying the thing, which is part of being in Fairy Tail."

Laxus, Natsu frowned, his power was great. The problem was the instincts he kept bottled up. It was unhealthy for a dragon slayer to do something like stay away from a pack. Hopefully when they battled Natsu will be able to get him to see that.

"Anyway." Lucy tried to get back on track, "My last zodiac is Capricorn. After we took care of Angel's team and guild Oracion Seis another dark guild Grimoire Heart tried to get back at us since they were under an alliance. They sent one of their highest members after Fairy Tail Zoldeo to attack us. Zoldeo had human control magic so Leo made us all run and took over the battle. I don't know all of what happened but later Leo came over to me and told me that Zoldeo had been a friend of my mother's and had been holding onto her last zodiac spirit. He had been controlling Capricorn for years."

"That's messed up." the pink haired male said.

"Yeah." Lucy nodded, "Now that I've told you about all my spirits it's your turn. Tell me some more about the dragons!"

The waitress came at that point to finally give them their food. Both had gotten a steak; Natsu's was rare while Lucy got medium rare. Immediately the two started eating and Natsu noticed that while he was digging in just like the dragons themselves Lucy was much more refined. She cut up her steak slowly and ate it quietly.

"You are so polite." the dragonslayer said through a mouth full of food. Then he realized what he did and blushed, "Sorry."

The blond laughed, "I spend most of my time at Fairy Tail where this is almost no such thing as manners. Trust me, I've seen a lot worse things than someone chewing with their mouth open or talking while their mouth is full." She took another bite and started talking, "If it helps I can do this." She started noisily chewing her food with a 'nom nom nom'.

Natsu put his hand on her mouth, "You're embarrassing yourself."

Lucy swatted his hand away playfully, "Whatever."

Natsu smiled, "So you want to know about dragons?"

* * *

It ended up getting really late while they ate and laughed and enjoyed each other's company. The two ended up getting back to Lucy's apartment (because Natsu wasn't letting his mate go home alone in the dark) and Natsu realized he had no idea where to go to get back to Gajeel and the others. He had no idea where the portal was exactly, nor did he know where the others were spending the night.

Lucy seemed to read this on his face, "Come in, you'll find your friends in the morning."

Natsu followed his mate into the house/apartment. It was a really nice place. Lucy showed him to the bathroom. Inside he went to the bathroom and took off his shirt (he never liked sleeping in a shirt no matter if it was really just a vest and had no real material on his chest or abs, besides might as well give his mate a show right?). Coming out he sniffed and grinned. He jumped into her bed, and snuggled into it. It smelled so much like her and it was so soft! This was the best thing ever! Much better than his hammock at home! He didn't notice he was falling asleep, it just happened.

* * *

 _ **Thank you so much for reading!**_

 _ **I know Lucy didn't get Caelum in the anime/manga, but I honestly thought she should have. Caelum liked her enough to miss its target.**_

 _ **Natsu and Lucy got to know each other, that's great. And Natsu's gotten obsessed with Lucy's bed just like the anime/manga.**_

 _ **Did you guys notice something about what Lucy and Natsu did this chapter? Let me know!**_

 _ **Read and Review, I love hearing what you people think.**_


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